Also known as that one AU where Keith and Pidge dick around in space, become space pirates, and get into way more trouble than they bargained for (and they bargained for like, a lot of trouble). This is an idea that I've been tinkering with for awhile, and it's taken on a few forms before this, but this is more or less the final idea that I've settled on. Other characters will appear! Matt and Allura will be chief among them, but eventually the whole gang will be here, so that's something to look forward to.

Keith and Pidge make for the best kind of terrible combination and I just wanted to write about them together, and all the explosive (literally) consequences that might entail. Especially when you put them in space and leave Keith in charge of like, ninety percent of the decisions as to their next move.

cosmic dust

chapter one

first contact

Five months prior, her father and brother had gone into space, and never returned.

They'd been declared dead- a crash, they'd said- but she never could believe it. Couldn't- wouldn't- accept it. So she did what anyone else would have done in her situation- she went looking for answers.

The Garrison's story, that it was pilot error that lead to a crash, just didn't add up. If there was a crash, where was the debris? She couldn't find a trace, anywhere on Kerberos, no matter how many probe feeds she hacked into. She'd even broken into the Garrison in an effort to find answers, but all that had resulted in was her being tossed out on her rear, with a promise that she'd be charged for treason if she did that again.

She had suspected it, strongly, long before then, but it was then that she knew for sure that her family was at the center of some kind of cover up.

It wasn't until she reviewed some of the footage from around the time of their mission, that she realized just what it was that was being covered up. The long, looming shadow of something passing over one of the Garrison's probes- the last bit of footage it had sent before it had gone offline.

Her family had been taken.

In that moment, she had never been more afraid in her life.

Her father and brother were out there, somewhere, held captive by something, and she had no way to get to them. For a brief second, she wished she could go back to believing they were dead- at least it would be far less terrifying than the looming threat of so many unknowns.

But it had only lasted a moment. Drawing in her breath, she steeled her shoulders. Maybe others in her position would have just given up. But she wasn't just anyone.

She was Katie Holt, and she was not going to give up on her family.

So she did what she did best. She tinkered, she experimented, and always, she looked to the stars. When she picked up her first bit of clear alien radio chatter, her heart nearly leapt out of her chest. Sitting alone on top of the roof of her house, she clutched her jacket a little tighter around her shoulders, biting back the urge to cry.

It was the first step.

Just the first step out of many, but the first step nonetheless.

It took her a good year after that before she found anything with promise, and if she had to be honest, it was only because it had crash landed in her backyard.

Well, okay, not her backyard, exactly. More like in the forest, but she could see it from her house, so it counted, right?

Whatever the case, the chatter had been going crazy just before the crash. Against her better judgement, she sprung to her feet, tucking away her equipment and hurrying back into her room. Wasting no time in packing a bag, she flew out of the house before she could even think twice about what it was that she was doing.

Something had just crashed into the Earth, and like hell she wasn't going to go see what it was.

It wasn't until she had a knife pressed to her throat, and a pair of gleaming, golden eyes staring down at her, that she realized that this might not have been her best idea ever. Her head was throbbing from where she'd hit when she'd been unceremoniously thrown to the ground, and she could only hope it wasn't bleeding.

So this was how she was going to die. Held at knife point in the forest.

Until the alien- and it must have been an alien, what else could it be besides an alien- drew back, pulling the knife from her throat.

"Fuck," it said, in surprisingly plain- if not crude- English, "...you're just a kid."

"Fourteen." The words came out before she could stop herself, even as she drew in a shaky breath, heart still pounding in her chest. "I'm fourteen."

To her surprise, the alien let out a faint snort. "If you're protesting, it means you're definitely a kid."

Opening her mouth, she quickly shut it, realizing that there wasn't much she could say back to that. Instead, she watched as the alien sheathed his knife, the faint glow of it's hilt disappearing into the darkness.

"One hell of a first contact." She muttered underneath her breath, pressing a hand up against her throat. There was a thin line where the knife had been pressed up against it, but no actual blood. Raising a hand to check her head, she confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it, other than a stray leaf stuck in her locks.

"Sorry." Again, the alien took her by surprise- she hadn't expected an apology, even if it was kind of a callous one. "I thought you were someone else."

"Oh." Blinking, she didn't know quite what to say to that. Who else could they have been expecting? The Galaxy Garrison? The government, maybe? "Glad I wasn't."

"You should be." The alien said, before offering her a hand. "What are you doing out here anyways? Isn't it kind of late to be wandering around in the forest?"

For a moment, she hesitated, uncertain if she should take it's hand. It had basically just tried to kill her, which, honest mistake or not, was still very much a thing that had just happened. Frowning, she slowly reached out, placing her hand in that of the alien's, allowing it to haul her to her feet.

Her hand lingered for a moment longer, finding herself drawn in by it's hands. In the dim light provided by her penlight, she could just make out purple fingers, tapering off in claws. The purple color seemed to fade out at the base joint of his fingers, fading into a pale, far more human color.

"I'm pretty sure I should be asking you that." She observed, pulling her hand away from it, making a show of dusting off her clothes. "You're not from around here, are you?"

Though his English was flawless, she couldn't help but note.

"Fair enough." The alien said, and even in the dark, she could have sworn that it looked strangely amused by her choice of words. "I might be from out of town."

"How far out of town?" She asked, arching a brow.

"A lot." The alien replied, rolling back it's shoulders with a shrug. Even it's body language was disarmingly human. If it weren't for the still glowing eyes, she might have allowed herself to think that she'd made some kind of mistake. "You got a name?"

"Pidge." It wasn't her real name, rather, it was the nickname her brother used for her. "It's Pidge. You got a name?"

"Keith."

A too human name, to go with a too human alien. Figures.

"So, Keith," Pidge said, testing out the name, wondering it was really his, or he'd picked it as some kind of alias. "...what brings you so far from out of town?"

"We're really going to keep this up, huh." Keith observed.

"You started it." Pidge pointed out.

"...fair." With a shrug of his shoulders, Keith folded his arms in front of his chest. "What are you going to do now that you've found me?"

"Me?" Pidge asked. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" The alien arched a brow- a glimmer of incredulity in those strange, pupilless eyes. She felt like she shouldn't be able to read them half as easily as she did- maybe it was just something about the face they were set in.

"Nothing." Pidge said simply. "If you help me."

He seemed to consider this for a moment, before he merely inclined his head. "Depends on what you want."

She wanted her family back, that's what.

"Information." Pidge told him. "I want information."

They had struck an accord that night, her and the alien. He'd tell her what she wanted to know- if he happened to know it- and she would keep silent about him.

Food had also been part of the bargain- as well as coming back during daylight hours. She was hesitant to leave at first, wondering if this was some kind of trick to get away from her. Until her eyes had fallen on the alien's knife, and she realized that if he wanted to do that, all he had to do was kill her and be done with it.

So, probably not a trick.

(Also, maybe this still wasn't her best idea.)

She'd lied to her mother, telling her she was going to go to the library to study. She'd instead stuffed her pack with food, squeezing her laptop in, and then headed back into the forest, trying to remember where exactly she had run into him the previous night.

She didn't need to- Keith found her.

In the daylight, she could see fully what she had started to suspect the night before- that her alien wasn't nearly as alien as she'd first thought. Sure, he still had the golden eyes, no trace of a pupil in sight, but in the bright light of day, they didn't really glow as they had last night. His skin was predominately pale, closer to her own tone than anything otherworldly.

His teeth, razor sharp and clearly meant for tearing meat, were pretty hard to miss- as were the elongated, pointed purple ears. There were speckles of that same color in the gap between his ears and eyes, but the rest of him seemed fairly human. His hair was a deep black, and long- nearly as long as that of her own.

He was... younger than she had been expecting, too, especially since he'd called her a kid. Maybe sixteen, seventeen at best. She couldn't be sure. Maybe aging just worked differently for... well, for whatever alien race he was. She hadn't had a chance to ask.

He was unkempt, unruly, wearing tattered clothing that definitely looked like it had seen better days. Maybe she should bring him some clothes from Matt's room. That too large hoodie he had gotten at the mall a month before he'd left might fit.

("I'll grow into it," he'd told her.)

And that was saying nothing about the impressive bags underneath his otherwise inhuman eyes. It looked like he hadn't had a good sleep in... forever, just about.

"I'm starving," was the first thing out of his mouth, "...you bring anything good?"

"It's mostly snacks." She told him, setting down her backpack. Pulling out her laptop and setting it aside first, she then tossed the pack to Keith, who grabbed it, wasting no time in rooting around in it.

"Snacks are good." Keith said, producing a big of chips, popping it open and nearly devouring the contents of the package whole before he said anything else. "What's with the computer?"

So he knew what a laptop was. Why did that not surprise her?

"I told you I wanted some information, didn't I?" Pidge asked, cracking it open and claiming the spot next to him. She didn't quite miss the way that he tensed at it, nor the way that his breath came a little easier when she gave him a bit more space.

"You did." Keith noted, setting down the pack next to him, pulling out a bag of cookies next. "I did tell you that I'm not sure how much I can actually tell you, right?"

"Give me what you can." She told him, busying herself booting her laptop up. "My father and brother work for the Galaxy Garrison, you know."

Out of the corner of her eye, she didn't miss the way that Keith stilled.

"There was a mission, to Kerberos, just over a year ago." She continued, typing away. "They never came back."

"The Garrison said it was a crash, but," bringing up the video feed that she must have studied a hundred times now, she turned her laptop so that Keith could get a better view of it, "...that doesn't look like a crash."

There was recognition that sparked in those golden eyes, and something beyond that- anger, fear, hatred- maybe all three. She couldn't be certain. Suddenly those strange eyes that were too easy for her to read became impossible to, and she found herself sharply reminded that the person next to her wasn't human.

"Zarkon."

He'd snarled the word, his voice dropping into a range that no human could ever hope to reproduce.

"Zarkon?" Her voice dropping to a whisper, she drew in her breath, steadying herself. "Is that... is that what they're called?"

"No. It's-" Keith began, only to quickly shut his mouth, looking away from her- almost as if he couldn't look at her. "He's their leader. That's a Galra warship."

"Galra?" Pidge asked, her brows furrowing, trying not to dwell on the word warship too much. "How much do you know about these Galra?"

His gaze was now fixed on the ground, as if it were the most interesting thing in the world- or maybe he just wanted to look anywhere that wasn't her eyes. "I'm Galra."

Pidge felt herself tense, a cold grip of fear budding in the back of her mind- and then she exhaled, something clicking into place. "Back when you said you were expecting someone else- you're running from them, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't use running," Keith almost seemed to bristle at the implications of the word, "...but yes."

"Did you... my father and brother, did you maybe-" Pidge asked, a hopeful note in her voice.

"I didn't meet any other humans." Keith told her, shaking his head. "Sorry."

Pidge felt her shoulders slump, but in her disappointment, she didn't miss the way he'd said it. Any other humans. Brows furrowing, she half wanted to ask, but there was something in his expression that made her bite her tongue instead.

Keith was her only lead right now, she didn't want to chase him away.

"Can I look at this?" Keith asked, motioning with a clawed hand towards her laptop.

Considering it for a moment, Pidge eventually inclined her head. "Just be careful. I built that myself, you know."

"Mm." Somehow, he didn't look all that surprised, accepting the laptop from her. He was careful, so careful, of his own claws. "That would explain the classified probe feed."

She got the impression he hadn't meant to say that out loud. How the hell did he know the feed from the Garrison probes were supposed to be classified?

"I had to know." She told him, watching as the not-so-alien alien made his way through the information that she had collected, all about the Kerberos mission and it's crew. She didn't miss the way his breath hitched in his throat not long after he began looking, but when she tried to see what it was that he was looking at, he hurriedly clicked away.

His expression became completely unreadable after that.

The next time she came around, Keith had gotten proper clothes from somewhere. Judging from the way he averted his gaze when she asked about it, she was pretty sure they were stolen.

Which... to be fair, it wasn't exactly like he could just walk into a store and just buy some. He looked human, just not human enough.

Still, she found herself wondering if he'd had his pick of clothes, or if he'd just decided to take the cropped red jacket because he thought it was fashionable. Given that he'd also hacked off no small amount of his hair, leaving what remained of it to fall into a mullet- she was going to go for the latter.

(The eighties called, they want their fashion back, she thought dimly.)

He'd filed down his claws too. She didn't miss that.

He was true to his word- he didn't know much that could help her with her family. And what she had managed to learn from him was nothing comforting.

The Galra, as he had told her, were a warmongering race who had managed to conquer most of the known universe. She thought he was exaggerating at first, but something in his gaze told her that he was being completely serious. He was also being completely serious about the fact that it's ruler was a ten thousand year old tyrant by the name of Zarkon- who had destroyed whole words in his lust for power.

Keith despised them.

In turn, she sensed that he despised himself.

She didn't know what to say to that- feelings had never been her strong suit- so instead she let him busy himself in helping her. He seemed interested in doing so, at any rate. Finally someone who could actually translate the countless hours of alien gibberish that she had recorded.

Not a lot of it was helpful. But some was.

There was a single Galran cruiser just at the edge of their system, beyond Kerberos. It had been the one to capture her family, but from what she had managed to glean, they were no longer there- nor was the pilot of the mission that had been captured with them. They had all been transferred to another ship, far beyond the bounds of what her scanner could pick up.

From there the lead went cold.

There was some chatter about a stolen ship, of no small importance to the empire- and from the way the edges of Keith's lips twitched in a grin, she suspected he had something to do with that.

Keith quickly proved himself to be... well, awkward was a good word for it. He knew both too much and too little about human societal norms, making for an odd mix all around. Horrible first impressions aside, he... didn't seem so bad, for someone who supposedly came from a warmongering species.

Keith also kept many secrets. Some less well than others. It wasn't exactly his forte.

She also learned that he was planning on leaving Earth, eventually.

It surprised her, for some reason. She didn't know why. She'd just assumed that he'd stay.

But it wasn't like he really could. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

That much was made clear when her mother found them together. She'd known that her mother was starting to get a bit suspicious of her frequent library trips, the excuse beginning to wear thin, but she hadn't expected that she'd follow her.

She'd fainted. Whoops.

Keith had carried her back to the house. They hadn't had much choice- it wasn't like she was could do it.

They... kind of hadn't planned for Keith to still be there when her mother came to, but she had.

Keith had been the first one to notice her, one ear almost seeming to twitch at the sound of her coming to. He froze, breath hitching in his throat, a bubble of mild panic in his eyes.

"Uh," blinking, looking like a deer caught in headlights, Keith held up one hand, "I... come in peace?"

"Really?" Unable to help herself, Pidge turned back to face him. "That's the best you could come up with?"

"Look, I panicked." Keith blurted out. "I didn't want her to faint again!"

Letting out a long sigh, Pidge instead turned towards her mother- who thank god, had in fact not fainted again. "Uh, mom?"

She was, however, having trouble forming words at the moment, unable to quite tear her gaze off of Keith- even as Keith very desperately tried to avoid meeting said gaze. "I... Katie, is that...?"

"Uh, right." Getting to her feet, Pidge gave her mother what she knew was the awkward smile to end all awkward smiles. How do you explain to your mother that you've been helping to hide an alien for the past few weeks? "Mom, this is Keith. He's from, uh... he's from out of town."

"Really?" Now it was Keith's turn to sound incredulous, how dare he. "We're going back to that again?"

"You got any better ideas, space boy?" Pidge demanded.

"Space-" Keith began, narrowing his eyes. "I'm older than you!"

"Yeah, by like, a handful of years. Barely even counts." Pidge hissed back. "Anyways, mom, this is Keith, he's a friend," and, oh that was an interesting reaction she'd gleaned from Keith with that word, "...so, uh, please don't call the Garrison or the police or the feds."

She was pretty sure she thought she heard Keith whisper 'especially not all three, oh god'.

"Is this..." Her mother began- oh good, she was talking, that was encouraging, "...is this why you've started sneaking food out of the house?"

"Uh," wincing a little, Pidge gave her a small laugh, "...kind of?"

"In her defense, I did ask her to." Keith piped up. "So uh, sorry for stealing all of your snacks, I guess?"

"Keith's been helping me!" Pidge interjected. "You know, with looking for dad and Matt!"

Drawing a long breath, Colleen Holt looked at her daughter, then looked at Keith, then back at her daughter again. Heaving a long sigh, she squared her shoulders. "Katie?"

"Uh, yes mom?" Pidge asked, her heart skipping half a beat.

"How long has Keith been here?"

Reasonable question, okay.

"For about like, two weeks, I guess?" Pidge asked.

And now, apparently, it was her mother's turn to sound incredulous. "He's been here two weeks, and you've been feeding him nothing but snacks."

"Wait," squinting, Pidge held up her hands, "...that's what you're taking issue with here?"

"He's skin and bones, Katie, of course I'm going to take issue with it." Planting her hands firmly on her hips, Colleen narrowed her eyes. Pidge... couldn't exactly say that she was wrong- Keith was on the skinny side, but she'd just kind of assumed that was natural. "Now for the love of god, help me make your space friend an actual decent meal for a change."

With that, her mother turned on her heel, making her way to the kitchen.

"Uh," Keith began, "...did your mother just invite me over for dinner?"

"I... think so?"

The invitation to dinner had translated into 'stay here with us' once her mother learned that Keith had been living in the middle of the forest.

Keith had tried to protest- he really had- but her mother wasn't having any of it. Sensing it better to resign himself to accept her hospitality, he simply gave in.

In the back of her mind, she knew that her mother was doing it in part to distract herself. She had buried herself in distractions ever since the news had broke.

With the new information that her husband and son were now likely in the hands of an evil alien empire, it only made sense that she would do it now more than ever. They'd told her- they kind of had to. Now that it had gotten to this point, they couldn't exactly leave her in the dark.

And it... seemed to help. It did, really.

And not just her mom, either.

It showed just how unused to being cared for Keith was- the longer he spent around the house, the more she got the impression that he hadn't had access to three square meals a day for a long time. He didn't talk about it- the most that anyone could get out of him was that he had been held captive 'for awhile', which seemed like an understatement if she'd ever seen one.

He still seemed to be set on leaving, though.

And she'd made up her mind.

She was going too.

She'd discussed it with her mother, of course she had. At first, she'd adamantly refused her- but once she saw the determination in her small frame, she'd reluctantly relented. With conditions, of course- chief among them that she would contact her as often as possible. It might not be easy, but she'd find a way.

Now she just had to talk to Keith about it.

She'd found him curled up on the roof outside, his gaze fixed skyward, tracking the stars. From the look of his damp hair (which she'd since learned was actually more fur-like in consistency than anything else), he'd just gotten out of a shower- given his over indulgence of them, it seemed they were something that he'd gone without for quite some time as well.

He heard her coming, one of his ears twitching in her general direction. Turning his head, Keith's glowing eyes made him all the easier to spot. He was a little less on the skin and bones side than he had been before, but not by much- and apparently having a real bed to sleep in had done nothing for the bags under his eyes.

She was starting to half suspect that Keith just plain didn't sleep.

"I'm coming with you."

The words took him by surprise, clearly.

"I... you're what?" Keith asked, peering at her as if this would somehow enlighten him as to what she meant.

"I'm coming with you." Pidge repeated. "To space."

"I-" Opening and closing his mouth, Keith sprung to his feet, with the kind of grace that she honestly found herself envying. "No."

"It's either you take me with you, or I find a way to get up there myself." Narrowing her eyes, she held his gaze. "Take your pick."

Silence.

"...the worst part is, I honestly believe you when you say that." Keith finally said, heaving a long sigh. Running a hand through his hair, he shifted on his heel, carefully studying her. "You don't have to do this. If it's about your family, I could-"

"No." Cutting him off, she shook her head. "I need to do this, Keith."

"But your mother-" Keith began.

"I already spoke to her." Pidge told him. "She understands."

"Understands?" Keith asked, taking a step forward. "Understands what, exactly? That she's going to let her daughter go into space with some alien she barely knows?"

"I know you're not half the alien you claim you are." Pidge retorted, clearly catching him off guard with that- to which she could only roll her eyes. "Oh please. Your name is Keith, and the first thing you said to me was fuck. I'm not stupid."

"And look, I won't ask about it." She told him. "It's clear you don't want to talk about it, so I won't push you to, but... I need to go with you, Keith. I can't just stay here knowing that my family is out there somewhere, held prisoner."

"I tried to kill you when we first met." Keith reminded her, clearly outright choosing to ignore everything that she had just said. "In case you forgot."

"Well, you didn't." She told him, letting out a long sigh. "Keith, I have to find them. You're my only chance."

For another long moment, there was nothing but silence between the two- before Keith's shoulders slumped. Running a hand through his hair again, he opened, then closed his mouth, before finally shaking his head.

"It's not... it's not pretty out there."

"I gathered that much." Pidge told him. "I'm prepared."

"I might have a bounty on my head?" Keith ventured.

"This does not surprise me in any way." She told him.

"...absolutely nothing I say is going to convince you, is it?" Keith asked flatly.

"Now you're starting to get it."

Letting out a load groan, Keith threw his hands up in the air. "Alright, fine. If that's how you want to do this, I guess it doesn't really matter what I say."

"No it does not." She said. "So," folding her hands behind her back, an impish grin on her face, "...when should I start packing?"

When it came to alien spaceships, she had all kinds of ideas as to what they might look like. Enough to fill a book.

Giant robotic red lion had been none of them.

"So," her thoughts drifting back to some of those early translations, "...stolen from the empire?"

"To be fair," and Keith didn't even try to keep the twinkle of amusement out of his eyes, that asshole, he'd been expecting this, "...they stole it first."